Book excerpt: DO YOU DREAD FIXING DINNER EACH NIGHT, BUT ARE LOOKING FOR BETTER THAN TAKEOUT? THE AUTHORS OF THE BESTSELLING A DINNER A DAY SHOW YOU HOW TO PREPARE DELICIOUS, FAMILY-PERFECTED MEALS EVERY MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR. If you're the cook in your household and crave comfort food that will bring your family back to the table, you need The Accidental Gourmet: Weeknights. Written by a gourmet and an I-hate-to-cook, this must-have volume translates Grandmother's cooking into today's lifestyle and gives new meaning to the term "fast food," as it brings variety, great taste, and fun back to home-cooked meals. In a unique approach to taking control of the kitchen, Sally Sondheim and Suzannah Sloan have created 260 brand-new menus -- including entrées, side dishes, and desserts -- that will allow time-pressed cooks to put together readily available ingredients with style and speed. There's no guesswork involved: Each menu is presented to you complete on two facing pages. The recipes are accompanied by organized shopping lists that make once-a-week marketing a snap, a rundown of necessary cooking equipment, and an indispensable preparation schedule that gets everything to the table on time. Each menu feeds an average family of four, but can easily be expanded or reduced to fit your needs, and the dishes highlight the freshest foods of the season, judiciously augmented by timesaving convenience foods. Now your family can enjoy such mouthwatering combinations as hearty chicken soup with carrots, beans, potatoes, and spinach, served with maple syrup muffins and strawberry-topped sherbet over melon; or a sausage, egg, and vegetable bake, served with spiced peaches, rosemary buns, and angel food cake with blueberry sauce. How about pork chops simmered with lemon, brown sugar, and honey, served with egg noodles tossed with butter and poppy seeds, sautéed snow peas and asparagus, and a butterscotch pudding layered with shortbread cookies? All the thinking, all the planning, all the organization, has been done for you. All that's left for you to do is to take the credit! Whether you're a single parent, the cooking half of a two-career family, or an overscheduled stay-at-home mom, The Accidental Gourmet: Weeknights is the one book you'll want to use every day.